Hounslow as a borough has not been exceptional within London for shoplifting, and neither has Chiswick Gunnersbury, until last month.If you look at the statistics, in terms of how likely the variation could just be due to random variation in the last two years, it does look like there has been a steady increase in statistically exceptional levels of localised shoplifting that started to take off on January across London. This isn’t simply an increase in average levels, but rather a month or two of huge increases in a ward followed by a drop back towards the usual levels. For example, Tottenham Hale saw shoplifting offences suddenly spike up to 96 in March having averaged less than 10 before. It quickly fell back and last month it was just 13. Barking Riverside saw a similar spike in May and Deptford, Greenwich Peninsular and Waterloo Southbank in June, all falling back in July. If it follows the same pattern in Chiswick, reported levels of shoplifting will have already dropped. Just to emphasise, such shoplifting spikes are a new and growing phenomenon, and while the local effects are shortlived, it does appear to be happening more often across London.
Tom Pike ● 629d